Week in review.

Posted on 19. Jul, 2009 by Derrick.

This past week has been action packed. So much so, that I didn’t have time to post any of this weeks events. So I’ll just do a day by day break down.

Saturday July 11th. Summer, Hyon, Theresa, and I had a road ride planned. The girls bailed, so the boys decided to do some mountainbiking. Not that I don’t love riding with Summer, but when its just the boys we have a tendency to go lickety split. Hyon took me to a place called Apex.

The trail in its self was difficult and challenging with multiple bike-n-hike areas. It was about 8 miles total with roughly 2200 feet in elevation gain.

At this point we were about 3/4ths of the way up (Hyon kept saying that at least)

On our way down we hit the Enchanted forest. An amazing decline, lots of roots and little hazards that made the ride just a tad more fun!

Saturday, July 12th. Summer and I rode 26  miles down the Platt river and back. We spent a good portion of that time chilling at a splash pool in littleton watch kids play.

Monday, July 13th. I took my mom out to the Westminster Open space. Guinness’ favorite place of all time. Mom was laughing at Guin and his antics in the water. Later that week we found out that they closed the Open space due to the plague.

Environmental Health Services submitted flea specimens to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for testing on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 and received results back this morning. The area is being closed to the public and posted with plague warnings signs today.

Dr. Jim Dale, DVM, MPH, Director of Environmental Health Services said, “There have been no reported human cases of plague in the area and if precautions are taken the disease is not considered to be a threat to humans.”

Apparently all the little prairie dogs are extremely susceptible to plague. It was odd because Summer and I were lamenting before the press release that we hadn’t seen any little faces around open space. We thought it was simply due to the grass being to high in areas. Its a good thing that our dog has given up on trying to catch those little guys.

Tuesdays, July 14th. Mom and I swung by my little gym and I swam 2000 meters. It was a good session, and the Total Immersion training is paying off. I can easily swim the 750 meters required for my triathlon. We then headed downtown so we can buy her a new rain jacket at REI. Then sat and shot the shit for a couple of hours while she was amazed at how many people used the bike paths in downtown Denver.

Wednesday, July 15th. Since my mother is visiting form Germany, I loaned her my car. I normally commute on my bike anyways. So I hit the road and had a uneventful commute into work. Most of my co-workers seemed concerned about it being in the mid 80′s, but I have been used to riding in the 110 degree heat of Phoenix.

I got a call from Hyon at about 7:40pm asking if I wanted to go do lookout mountain. I knew that I was going to have to ride again on Thursday and Friday, but I could never turn down an evening ride.

So decked out in my commuter gear (ie T-shirt and running shorts) We hit the bottom of the ride at about 9:30pm. It was a nice cool 70 degrees, and the darkness hid the hill climb. My legs were still a little sore from our ride just a couple of days ago, but I put my head down and we made it up in about 40 minutes. Respectible time but we decided to push it to the tippy top and ride another mile.

Bombing down the mountain with just some bike lights was fun. My heavy ass steel touring bike with 28mm wheels tends to handle the descent better then a normal road bike. So I had to slow down a bit for Hyon.

Thursday, July 16. Commuting only! Just good ol fashioned bike commuting.

Friday, July 17. I thought that since I had not swam since Tuesday, I would hit the gym after work. So I packed my panniers with my swim gear and headed off to work. After work I rode over to the gym and figured I would get another 2000 meters in. This time I wanted to see how fast I could get my first 750 meters done. 22 minutes! When we started this Tri-training, I was well over 30 minutes. My goal is to be in the 18 minute range before the tri.

So in review, the past week I;

• Swam 4000 meters
• Hiked 5 miles
• 67 miles of road riding.
• 10 miles of mountain biking.
• Rode just under a mile of elevation (5000 feet)

I think somewhere in there I worked. I’ll have to say though. With all that I did, my legs feel great. I’m looking forward to running 4 miles on Monday

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lazy ass!

Posted on 25. Jun, 2009 by Derrick.

While I have friends that are either doing an Iron man or riding 150 miles for MS research I’ve been doing jack squat.

Since Summer’s Mom came into town, I’ve literally done nothing. 2 weeks of being a complete lazy ass. Well, not complete. Floyd and I decided on good authority to change the way we swim.

So for the last week and a half I’ve spent 8 hours re-training my body to be more efficient and smooth in the water using techniques taught by Total Immersion.  It is a totally amazing way to swim and after about a week of practice I feel like I’m gliding in the water and not fighting it. Before I would feel like I just blew up an air mattress without stopping for breath. I got a lightheaded fuzziness that makes you feel like a bobble head. Now, I’m not winded at all after 250 meters of swimming. If anyone is ever looking to do long distance swimming, try total immersion. It has helped both Floyd and I to become better swimmers. Hopefully taking our 1/2 mile swim down to under 20 minutes.

I’ve decided to focus completely on swimming and running for the next month and a half then re-introduce biking. I’ve got to master my techniques (I know it will take years, but I’ve got 3 months).

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My crazy friends!

Posted on 19. Jun, 2009 by Derrick.

My friends sometimes don’t have all their marbles. Well, Most of my friends don’t have all their marbles, and my bff from high school is no exception.

Back in the day we used to try to “dukes of hazard” our cars, jump from one car to the next, and have inter-car food fights. We were partners in crime and why change anything. Well, maybe not partners. He is doing an Ironman and I’m doing just a triathlon.

So I’ve been getting little hints, tips and tricks from him for my tri. Why not? He is swimming 2.4 miles, Riding 112 miles, and running 26 miles. Like I said he isn’t all together in his head.

If you want to follow his progress. You can watch live here, or follow his split times here.

Update 1. Johns swim time 1:23:14

Update 2. Johns bike time 5:58:39

Update 3. Johns run time 4:52:02

CONGRATS JOHN!

Overall time 12:33:22… You totally could have done that faster! Just kidding!

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Malfunction monday part 2

Posted on 03. Jun, 2009 by Derrick.

A while back while commuting in phoenix I had a monday where just about everything went wrong. Malfunction monday has struck again! Lets start from the top with the litany of insignificant crap that made my Tri-Training a pain in the ass.

• My day started with forgetting a t-shirt to run in. I’ve seen Walgreens have specials for 5 shirts for 5 dollars. I didn’t get the cheap ones, but I got a shirt for 5 bucks. It wasn’t a big deal but it took 15 minutes out of my day
• Normally when I start my swim, it takes me about 200 meters before I can get my breathing into a rhythm. I did my half mile swim and never once did I get into any rhythm or comfortable stroke. I struggled the entire 23 minutes.
• Still a little put off by my swim, I began my ride. The route around our gym is not exactly easy. Its got just under 400 ft of elevation. On a normal day, I’d be all for riding hills. With facing the prospect of running 3 miles immediately after my ride. I was regretting not finding a flatter route.
• All throughout my ride I was unable to get rid of my swimmers ear. Not all that annoying but I’ll tell you. Riding 13 miles with swimmers ear is about as bad as Chinese water torture.
• When I got back to the gym to finish my workout, I headed for the treadmill and really wanted to get my 3 miles under 28 minutes. I suck at running and a 9 minute mile over 3 miles would have made me at least happy. At about 2.2 miles into my run and I felt a twing, not a twang, but a twing in my groin. I pulled my groin running in a straight line? How in the flying hell do you do that?
• While running, the gym announced that they were closing the pool due to a lightning storm moving into the area. After about an hour and 45 minutes of pushing hard, my brain was just not functioning. I kept running not thinking that my poor bike was getting drenched still on top of my car. The bike itself would be fine. It was my expensive brooks saddle that cant take that kind of moisture. Not only is it an expensive saddle but it takes close to a thousand miles of riding to properly break it in. When I finally arrived to my car, again brain not functioning, I grabbed my all-tool and immediately tried to take my seatpost off of my bike. My road bike is all steel, and I was holding on to it in the middle of a lightning storm. It finally dawned on me that I was a idiot. All I could think about was the headlines. “Triathlon trainer struck by lightning while trying to save saddle”.
• The day wouldn’t have been over there. When I finally got home. I found a painful blister on my pinky toe. I’ve never in my life had a blister there, and man is it painful.

I don’t know that if there is a lesson here. Maybe to never train on mondays? I don’t know. I’ll leave you with a video that we shot last week friday. I brought the underwater housing for my camera so we can see our progress with freestyle strokes.

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The boys are back in town

Posted on 16. May, 2009 by Derrick.

After swimming 1/2 mile (I know that sounds lame, but seriously try it, it will kick your ass). Floyd and I continued our Triathlon training by riding 28 miles.

However, we ended up at an Irish pub half way between our ride downtown Denver. Beer, corned beef and cabbage are not part of “training”. Fuck it, I eat what I heat and drink what I drink!

check out the a break down of our entire ride over on Floyd’s page.

- D

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Sore everything

Posted on 13. May, 2009 by Derrick.

So in this past week I’ve swam 2 miles, ran 9, rode 100, Snowboarded, and did the p90x Yoga. I’m sore from the bottom of my feet to the tip of my ears!

Yesterday was my “day off”. We went to our local watering hole and had our first night of pool league. I had to have 2 beers just to feel normal enough when I bent over the table to make a shot. Floyd my triathlon work out partner drank a little to much and was going to throw up on the way home.

I’m going to take a second day off because everything hurts!

We also decided to go backpacking for our first time in Colorado on memorial day weekend. We will be heading up to Indian Peaks wilderness area where we took the dog snow shoeing earlier in the season. This time I’ve picked a easy 5 mile 800 ft incline trail. We will be staying at Diamond lake/Jasper lake for the weekend.

I’m super stoked about this trip. I’ve been waiting to go backpacking here in Colorado for 8 months!

- Derrick

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